Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a supercharger for an internal combustion engine to supply air thereto. More specifically, the present invention relates to a supercharger that is adapted to linearly compress the volume of air supplied to the internal combustion engine, thereby minimizing the loss of energy in the form of thermal energy.
Conventional aspirated engines are limited in work output by the amount of air that they are able to intake during each combustion cycle, rather than the amount of fuel that is available for each intake cycle. This creates a physical barrier on the amount of work output by the engine, which is defined by the size-to-power ratio of the engine. However, one can increase the work output of the engine by providing an increased amount of oxygen to the engine per intake cycle. Superchargers compress the air supplied to the intake manifold of an internal combustion engine, which increases the density of the intake air and thus increases the amount of oxygen provided to the internal combustion engine during each intake cycle. The increased amount of oxygen supplied per intake cycle allows the engine to burn more fuel per intake cycle, thereby allowing the engine to output more work as compared to an engine that does not have a supercharger, without increasing the size of the engine.
Description of the Prior Art
Devices have been disclosed in the prior art that relate to superchargers. These include devices that have been patented and published in patent application publications. These devices comprise a variety of different mechanically-driven devices that are adapted to physically compress a volume of intake air and transfer the compressed air intake manifold of an internal combustion engine, such as a twin-screw design. The following is a list of devices deemed most relevant to the present disclosure, which are herein described for the purposes of highlighting and differentiating the unique aspects of the present invention, and further highlighting the drawbacks existing in the prior art.
Conventional twin-screw superchargers trap and then transfer a fixed volume of trapped air from atmospheric pressure to a high pressure environment. These devices have a stepped progression between the low pressure environment, i.e. atmospheric pressure, and the high pressure environment and then from the high pressure environment to a negative pressure environment as the trapped air is compressed and then transmitted to the air intake manifold of the internal combustion engine. This high impact, stepped compression between the various states of the supercharger requires more energy input, dissipates a percentage of the energy as undesirable thermal energy that is then imparted to the system, and creates mechanical stress on the system. Therefore, there is a need in the prior art for a supercharger that utilizes gradual, linear compression of the volume of intake air, thereby requiring less energy input to drive the mechanical components of the system, minimizing the amount of energy that is dissipated as thermal energy, and imparting less mechanical stress on the system as compared to a conventional twin-screw supercharger design.
The present invention substantially diverges in design elements from the prior art and consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to existing supercharger devices. In this regard the instant invention substantially fulfills these needs.